Pages

Friday, January 31, 2014

+Sprint will officially be the first carrier in the US to push Android 4.4 KitKat to the +HTC One. The new update won't go live until February 11th.

Users looking to download the update now can simply do so by jumping into Settings > About Phone > Software update. If you don’t see it there yet, try again as the update was just loaded in the servers.

The update brings the HTC One’s software build up to version 4.06.651.4 and besides KitKat, it also introduces the latest version of Sense 5.5.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

+Google company +Waze is starting up a beta program itself. The Waze beta program is +Android only and it is a closed beta, meaning you'll have to sign-up and get an invite in order to join the fun. Once you're in the program, you'll be treated to new features before they make it to the official release. You'll also be responsible for helping the team "find bugs and issues, providing valuable feedback on old & new features, and suggesting ways to make the app function even better". For your troubles, you not only get to play with the new version of Waze before anyone else, but the team is saying that there will be prizes given away. As yet, there is no word on what the prizes might be or what features are being tested.

The system requirements to be in the beta are low enough as to not really matter. If you want to get in, just head over to the sign-up source link to get a chance. The sign-up for the beta is fairly in-depth, almost like a job application, so it seems the team is taking this seriously and may not be handing out invites to just anyone. Click the source link below to sign up.

The shareholders of both Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group have approved the sale of Vodafone's stake in +Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications and +Vodafone. Vodafone owns about 45% of Verizon Wireless. Verizon Communications proposed last year to take full ownership of the joint venture in a deal valued at $130 billion. The companies' shareholders agreed to the terms of the sale and the issuance of new stock to make the financial transaction work. The Federal Communications Commission has already approved the sale, but it still needs the approval of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. The companies expect the deal to close on or about February 21.

Sprint's senior executives recently met with members of the U.S. Department of Justice to ascertain just how much opposition a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile might face. The meeting included Masayoshi Son, CEO of +SoftBankCorp, which holds a majority stake in Sprint, and Dan Hesse, CEO of +Sprint. Justice Department officials told Son and Hesse that such a deal would "face skepticism" from government regulators, according to people familiar with the details of the conversation. Regulators appear to favor the current competitive environment, which includes four national network operators, as opposed to three were Sprint and T-Mobile to combine. Sprint already has commitments from banks to finance the deal. SoftBank and +Deutsche Telekom, which owns 67% of +T-Mobile, have met to iron out the broad strokes of a merger/acquisition. Many details have yet to be finalized before an acquisition is formally proposed.Source: Wall Street Journal

Last week’s update to Chrome Canary enabled Google Now notifications for those using Canary builds, but the recent update to the Chrome OS Dev channel brings the feature to users not quiteadventurous enough to use Chrome OS’hidden Canary channel.

Just like in the Canary version, Google Now notifications get added to Chrome OS’ Notification Centre, making full use of rich notifications to provide actions like tracking dispatched packages or viewing the latest weather for your area.

Using Google Now on Chrome OS Dev

You’ll need to be on the Chrome OS Dev channel and have Google Now configured on Android or iOS with the same Google account you’re using for your Chromebook.

To enable the feature, head over to chrome://flags/#enable-google-now, change the setting from ‘Default’ to ‘Enabled’, and click ‘Relaunch Now’ at the bottom of the page.

Once relaunched, your Notification Centre will have a number of notifications from your Android or iOS device synced. Google says that Chrome will only show a subset of cards from your mobile devices for now. Google Now will also use your mobile devices for location data though with the feature coming to your laptops and Chromebooks, this could very well change in the future.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Google announced on Wednesday that it has sold its Motorola smartphone business to PC manufacturer Lenovo for $2.9 billion.

Google closed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola in 2012. Taking into account Google's $2.4 billion sale of the Motorola Home division to Arris in December of that year, that's still a $7.2 billion difference.

The loss represents a rare black mark on Google's otherwise impressive history of high-profile acquisitions, which includes YouTube, AdSense and Android. Motorola currently makes the Moto X and Moto G smartphones as well as the Droid Ultra on Verizon Wireless.

The buy will likely strengthen Lenovo's position in the smartphone market and pick up its presence especially in North America and Latin America.

Google will retain majority ownership of Motorola's Mobility patent portfolio one of the key reasons for the initial acquisition but Lenovo will receive a license to this and gain about 2,000 patent assets. Lenovo will not be getting its advanced research unit, which recently launched an open hardware platform for building modular smartphones.

“Lenovo has the expertise and track record to scale Motorola Mobility into a major player within the Android ecosystem," Google CEO Larry Page said in a press release. "This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere."

Page further detailed in an official Google blog post it acquired the division in 2012 to fuel the Android ecosystem by creating a stronger patent portfolio for Google.

"But the smartphone market is super competitive, and to thrive it helps to be all-in when it comes to making mobile devices," he added. "It’s why we believe that Motorola will be better served by Lenovo which has a rapidly growing smartphone business and is the largest and fastest growing PC manufacturer in the world."

Page warned, however, that the move doesn't signal a larger shift away from hardware efforts.

"The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry," he said. "We’re excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems."

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

BlackBerry 10.2.1 update getting pushed out starting today for the Verizon version of the BlackBerry Z10, let's take a look at some of the new features that will be coming with the latest BlackBerry 10 build. First, the BlackBerry Priority Hub will learn all about you, curating your important emails, calls, IMs and notifications. This allows you to quickly receive those communications that are important to you.

The BlackBerry 10.2.1 update includes new battery monitoring tools and usage indicators that help you manage battery life better. The update also gives you more options to respond to someone trying to reach you. You can now send a text, email or use BBM to reply to calls. To make responding to text messages and email a lot easier, the update allows you to set up different SMS and email groups so that you can communicate with a large number of people at the same time. And notifications on the lock screen are now actionable, so you can quickly respond to someone without having to unlock the phone and open the appropriate application.Among other new features coming with the BlackBerry 10.2.1 update is an option that allows you to save a website for viewing later, while offline. Those with the BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5 will be able to use their handsets as an FM radio, even when not connected to a network.By the end of next month, all U.S. BlackBerry 10 users should have received the update, which is also rolling out to other countries and regions like Europe, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Motorola announced a new sale that is set to take place next Monday on January 27. The deal will only last a single hour online, beginning at 3pm EST and ending at 4pm EST. During that time frame, you can grab an off contract Moto X for $100 off of the full retail price $299 for the 16GB model and $349 for the 32GB model.

Motorola stated if you miss the $100 off fire sale on Monday, Moto X phones will remain at $70 off of the full contract price until Valentine’s Day in February.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

ERA's HD audio delivers crystal clear sound for much more than just phone calls. Listen to music in the morning, catch up on podcasts while you catch up on chores, or ask Siri for advice when you're cooking dinner. With every word or note, ERA is a revelation in how you listen, and talk, through a Bluetooth® headset.

Life is full of noise. But conversations demand clarity. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, your every word should be crisp, clear, and coherent.

Military-grade NoiseAssassin® eliminates background noise, so even if you're in a crowd, the only thing they'll hear on the other end is the sound of your voice.

ERA's HD audio delivers crystal clear sound for much more than just phone calls. Listen to music in the morning, catch up on podcasts while you catch up on chores, or ask Siri for advice when you're cooking dinner. With every word or note, ERA is a revelation in how you listen, and talk, through a Bluetooth® headset.

From home to the office, from airport to airport, our lives are spent on the move. So no matter how wonderful your wireless headset, it's worthless without power.

ERA's sleek charging case more than doubles its 4 hours of talk-time and protects it, so you'll always have power, even if you’re always on the go.

Life isn't one-size-fits-all, and every person deserves technology that adapts to their needs. The Jawbone App lets you customize ERA to make it your own and program easy access to Siri or Google Now for hands-free control. Plus, the built-in locator ensures you'll never lose it.

ERA isn't just our best headset ever, it's the best headset we've ever made for you.

The smallest, lightest, most comfortable headset we've ever created. Advanced ear fittings feature a new design that uses the natural contour of the ear to create a secure fit so it's comfortable enough to wear all day.

The smallest, lightest, most comfortable headset we've ever created. Advanced ear fittings feature a new design that uses the natural contour of the ear to create a secure fit so it's comfortable enough to wear all day.

The smallest, lightest, most comfortable headset we've ever created. Advanced ear fittings feature a new design that uses the natural contour of the ear to create a secure fit so it's comfortable enough to wear all day.

Google has announced the release of the Moto G Google Play Edition starting at $179 for the 8GB model and $199 for the 16GB model. There isn’t much of a difference between the Google Play Edition and the regular unlocked GSM model of the Moto G selling through other retailers. The Moto G is already just about stock Android to begin with, and the pricing is around the same you’ll find through third-party retailers. With the Google Play Edition Moto G you’ll be guaranteed completely stock Android and updates when other Google Play Edition devices receive them. The Moto G is available now through the Google Play website for customers in the US and will run on AT&T, T-Mobile, and their respectful MVNO pre-paid services (i.e. MetroPCS, Aio, and GoSmart).

HP has announced the quad-core Slate 6 and Slate 7 VoiceTab, with a 720P displayed in tow. The initial launch country will be India but more are on the way. While no price was given, we’d imagine that since the other details were true, the $200 price point for the Slate 6 VoiceTab and $250 for the 7-inch seem like a pretty good starting point.

The phones will come with 16GB of on board storage and have a Micro-SD card for 32GB more storage. As you can see in the image above, they both have stereo speakers (no word yet on Beats audio).

It appears that HP has really done its homework here and has identified a market where it can make things happen. HP obviously has a huge brand and PC presence in India and at the same time, the market is easy to enter because the carriers aren’t gatekeepers like they are in the US.

In all, though Google has to be pretty satisfied with the launch. HP is traditionally a Windows shop but since Meg Whitman’s return has gone ChomeOS and Android first with the Slate line of tablets and now their Smartphones.

Google has released a new application for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to allow Google Play users to stream purchased movies and TV shows. You cannot rent or purchase content via this application you must download it from Google Play on Android or the web and then the purchased titles will be available to stream via this app. The application is only supported in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. WiFi is currently required for streaming. The app also allows streaming to the ChromeCast.Source: iTunes

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Canonical has officially supported the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, 7, and 10, to date and let the Ubuntu Community handle building support for other devices (the community has added support for approximately 50 devices). We expected the Nexus 5 be added to the list, but now it seems Canonical will not be officially supporting Google's latest Nexus handset.Canonical is focusing down its efforts for official support, and is dropping the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 (2012), and Nexus 10 from the official support list. This means that the only devices Canonical will be working on are the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 (2013). Of course, the community will likely pick up the slack on the rest; and, Canonical has not left those devices out completely, simply saying that they won't be part of the current release cycle aiming at April 2014 (and Ubuntu 14.04), although work on supporting the Nexus 5 could start as soon as the end of January.Canonical said in today's Ubuntu Phone mailing that the issue is that all of the work so far has been focused on the Android 4.3 enablement stack, and to "reinvest" in all of the Nexus devices with the new Android 4.4 enablement stack would be "too high" a cost right now. Instead, the team will be focused on optimizing the platform for use on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 (2013), as well as building ARM and x86 emulators this month. Source: OMG! Ubuntu!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Today, Motorola's Assist app on the Google Play Store has been updated with a few new features. Assist can determine your actions, such as driving, sleeping, and perform a pre-specificed command.

Until today, the app could only read you the text messages you received while driving. With the newest update you can now reply to texts while driving by speaking to the phone. Once the text is read to you, you will have the ability to read a response to the app.

In addition, Assist can also launch your music player of choice when it notices you are driving.

The update is available on the Google Play Store. Motorola Assist is only compatible with Verizon Wireless' most recent Droid line-up, as well as the Moto X.

Google has confirmed in a press release that it is acquiring Nest Labs, the company behind Nest smart thermostats and fire alarms started by Tony Fadell. Earlier reports were quickly confirmed along with the transaction price of $3.2 billion in cash in an official announcement posted on the company’s Investor website. In the statement, Google said that Fadell will be staying on board as a Google employee and continuing to run Nest.

Google had already invested in the company through its Google Ventures arm, but the purchase means Nest will officially become a part of Google. In its statement announcing the acquisition, Google noted that Nest will continue “its own distinct brand identity” and that Fadell will continue to run the company.Source: Nest

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Microsoft is currently planning to use the Windows 9 branding and vision as a way to move away from some of the criticisms of the Windows 8 operating system. It’s not clear what type of changes will be made to Windows 9 with Metro 2.0, inside the new OS will reportedly include a major focus on improving Microsoft’s new app world and tiles. Previous rumors have suggested Microsoft is planning to separate out its Windows 8 style apps to allow them to float and run in separate windows on the traditional desktop. Microsoft will reportedly use three major milestone development points for Windows 9, but it’s not clear how many of them will be released to the public during the development period. The software maker is currently in the final planning stages for Windows 9 and work is expected to begin after the Build 2014 developer conference in April. It sounds like Microsoft will use Build 2014 as a launch point for its vision of Windows 9, detailing some of the planned changes in an attempt to generate excitement around the company’s future plans.

Chief Executive John Legere said he wasn’t going to drool and decline to comment like the typical public company CEO when hit with a question about mergers and acquisitions.

“I have a couple things to say about it, actually,” he said.

A deal with Sprint would provide significant scale and capability, Legere said “the T-Mobile Uncarrier business, the people, the brand the attitude is here to stay. … I think what we’re doing in any scenario we will prevail.”

T-Mobile the fourth largest U.S. carrier, said this week it added 800,000 of the lucrative phone postpaid customers, bringing its total additions for the year to more than 2 million.

Overall, including prepaid customers and tablets, T-Mobile added 4.4 million customers in 2013, turning around years of losses.

Sprint, meanwhile lost more than 2 million customers in the first nine months of 2013, and executives are signaling there will be more bad news to come.

While some past acquisitions in the wireless industry have been done in large part to acquire spectrum, future deals should be driven by brands, Legere argued.

Sprint is a pile of spectrum waiting to be turned into a capability, Legere said. T-Mobile, on the other hand, is a change agent and a maverick, things the United States feels is extremely important, Legere said in a nod to language often used by antitrust officials.

T-Mobile chief financial officer Braxton Carter made a similar argument in an interview following the event. Who is the innovator in the industry? What is the brand that’s really shaking things up? Where is the momentum going? he asked. It’s inconceivable under any strategic scenario that you wouldn’t want to capitalize on that going forward.

The Justice Department, which has made clear its interest in keeping four national competitors, is expected to be a huge hurdle to a deal. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, in a meeting with analysts Tuesday, said antitrust officials are getting what they wanted when they shot down AT&T’s $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile two years ago.

I think they are beginning to see some of the things that they were hoping to see out of four, McAdam said "My guess is they are going to want to play that hand out".

Earlier this week, T-Mobile’s Carter seemed to toss out a possible solution, propping up a new competitor by doing a deal to let Dish Network use the carrier’s cellular network.

"Doing a deal would open up some other very interesting strategic opportunities", he said. By doing a hosting deal with another party you could effectively create another nationwide carrier. Again, that could be very pro-competitive in the U.S. marketplace".

In an interview Wednesday, Carter said “there are certainly regulatory overtones here”, but declined to elaborate on whether helping Dish offer wireless service would help a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile get past regulators.

T-Mobile might be onto something, the Justice Department stressed the need for four carriers as recently as this spring. Tom Wheeler, the new head of the Federal Communications Commission, which reviews telecom mergers, said last month that, the mobile business is today, with four carriers, a competitive business, and it’s important it stay that way.

Facilitating a new entrant could assuage such concerns. Regulatory experts in Washington say Sprint will need to do something more than just arguing that merging the Number three and Number four carriers will make for a stronger competitor to an industry dominated by AT&T and Verizon, and analysts including Jonathan Chaplin of New Street Research and Kevin Smithen of Macquarie have begun to argue that setting up a competitor will need to be part of a deal.

Chime in below, what is your take on a possible T-Mobile and Sprint merger?

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Beats Music today announced the pending launch of an online and mobile streaming music service. Beats Music will be available to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices for $9.99 per month. The subscription fee grants users unlimited access to 20 million tracks, including streaming and downloads for offline playback. Beats Music will offer dozens of curated music stations, as well as allow consumers to create their own. The service will offer a Just for You function which offers a personalized selection of albums and playlists based on user tastes.

Right Now, which is a continuous playlist made from the user's location, preferences, surroundings, and mood.

Highlights, which is made from current and culturally aware playlists; and Find It, a search function that pulls out playlists and songs.

According to Beats, it is paying all artists the same royalties for their music. The service runs on the platform built by MOG, which was bought by Beats Audio in 2012. Single lines can test the service for free for one month, after which the monthly subscription kicks in. Beats Music also announced a collaboration with AT&T.

Beats Music for AT&T customers will cost $15 per month and targets families or other groups that use Mobile Share plans. Beats Music for AT&T gives up to five people unlimited streaming and song downloads per month. AT&T is offering families a free 90-day trial, but there is no free version of Beats Music it's all or nothing. Potential customers do not need to have Beats headphones in order to subscribe to Beats Music. Beats Music will become available January 21.

Report's form 9to5Google claims that HP is prepping a new low cost Android smartphone that could be introduced as soon as next week.

This handset is described as being similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and is expected to target prepaid and emerging markets with a $200 price point.

HP hasn't released a new smartphone since the company purchased Palm and its webOS mobile operating system in 2010 and subsequently released a few devices that ran the software, including the HP Veer and HP TouchPad. It discontinued operations on webOS hardware in late 2011, and recently sold webOS to LG.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Motorola’s most affordable prepaid phone, the Moto G, is now available online at Verizon for $99.99 without a contract. Keep in mind the Moto G only works on Verizon’s 3G network, not 4G LTE, and also can’t be taken to another network.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Yahoo announced today at the company’s CES press conference that it has acquired Aviate, the contextually-aware launcher replacement for Android devices.

Aviate, which raised a $1.8 million round of funding last year from venture capital firms, has generated a lot of buzz for evoking Google Now in the way it adjusts home screens depending on location and time of day. While at a workplace, for example, Aviate provides shortcuts to apps for business, but at a local attraction, the widgets and icons may change to a check-in service like Foursquare. Such “activities” are customizable, but limited by the types of apps installed; no OpenTable, for instance, means restaurant reservations won’t be displayed. To remedy this and monetize, Aviate intended to offer app recommendations in the future, although it’s unclear if Yahoo has other plans.

How Yahoo intends to leverage Aviate’s technology, the company didn’t elaborate. However, Yahoo is clearly in a celebratory mood, because it’s offering beta spots to 25,000 new users (Use the code “YAHOO” when signing up).

Samsung introduced its new Galaxy Pro lineup of tablets, it also showed a redesigned TouchWiz tablet interface. This morning, notorious leaker @evleaks has post some images of a redesigned TouchWiz interface for smartphones.

At this point it’s unclear which version of Android this skin is meant to run on. We will be sure to release an update when more details are made official.

Sprint announced a new offer that allows up to ten “framily” (that’s friends+family) members to share a common plan. The “framily” plan (yes, they’re really calling it that) offers unlimited talk and text for up to ten people, even if they don’t live in the same household, as required by many previous family plans. Each member of the “framily” will also get 1 GB of data each as long as they don’t roam onto another network.

Unlike old family plans, “framily” plans allow everyone to get a separate bill sent to their homes. As you add more people to your group, the bill drops by $5 for everyone, and goes as low as $25 per month if you have seven or more “framily” members. The plans will be available in Sprint retail stores starting on January 10th.

Nokia's project to get Android on low cost smartphones got real today with yet another leak of the phones, this time with some OS shots. If what we’re seeing is legit, as most evleaks are, this one has two SIM card slots and a thick customized overlay.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

We have just launched our very own Google+ communities page, please be sure to join our community and start talking.Don't forget pass on the word to your family and friend as well... "The Phone Ninja" has a Google+ communities page.Source: "The Phone Ninja" Google+ Communities link

Bitspin has announced that it has been acquired by Google. Bitspin is the company behind the popular Timely alarm clock app, which has become one of the most popular and well designed apps on the Google Play Store. It has received an overall rating of 4.4 stars out of 5.

As for the future of Timely, Bitspin says it will remain on the Play Store, though it shouldn’t receive any major feature updates. Also, all content that was once behind an in-app purchase is now free, such as sounds, themes, and challenges.

We assume Google went after Bitspin for their excellent design taste, which happens to fit right in with Google’s vision. We can only imagine that the Bitspin developers will spend some time tweaking the design of various aspects of Android’s interface in the future.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Republic is offering a specially designed Motorola Moto X for $299. The phone is made to handle hybrid calling. For $99, you can buy a beta version of the Motorola DEFY XT that is water, dust, and scratch resistant.

Now to the contest. There are three ways to enter... On Twitter, follow Republic Wireless and send a tweet to @RepublicWirelss. Make sure you use the hashtag #MotoXGiveaway and tweet the reason why you want to win the phone and the service. Those who members of the Republic Wireless community can send an email to contest@republicwireless.com, and include your community username. Or go to Republic's Facebook page to enter.

Entries are accepted until 11:59pm EST on January 12th. Each method of entering (email, Facebook or Twitter) will have one winner who will receive the phone and the service. Now here is the thing about the free service. The winner will get 12 months of the $10 a month service which gives you unlimited talk and text over a cell network and Wi-Fi, and unlimited data over Wi-Fi only.#MotoXGiveawaySource: Republic Wireless entry page